EeeOS - The EeePC Linux OS

EeeOS is designed to be a minimalistic Custom Debian Distribution that provides a base system (drivers, system tools, Xorg) and nothing more. The idea behind such a release is so that users of Eee Linux OS can configure and build their own Eee experience… an EeeXperience if you will :P While systems like Ubuntu, Fedora, Suse and Xandros are all amazing in their own right, they often come pre-configured and with a lot of bloat. Some power users prefer to have complete control over their systems and it is with these users in mind that Eee OS was created.

• Minimalist design. This helps save space on the smaller SSD in the EeePC
• No unneeded software. You decide what goes into your system
• Strong Debian base. EeeOS is not a fork, so it is completely compatible with Debian.. because it is Debian!
• Runs from the Eee's internal SSD, USB Stick or SD Card

• become Ubuntu. Linux knowledge is needed
• do everything for you “out of the box”.
• make every little task easy and simple with a GUI
• become a fork of Debian. The only non-Debian packages are used for Eee hardware.
• take the power out of your hands

Grab the EeeOS Beta 2 Testing Image from here

1. Download Image
   
2. The image is a 1 GB (512MB?) disk image. Your destination device MUST be at least 1 GB to use the image
   
3. Format the destination device with ext2, if it isn't already (eg. sudo mkfs.ext2 /dev/sd??)
   
4. On an already working Linux machine, change to the directory containing the image you just downloaded. Now type:
   
   gunzip -dc eeeos_beta2.img.gz | sudo dd of=/dev/DEV
   
   where /dev/DEV is the name of your target device (e.g. /dev/sdc)
   
   
5. Now run e2fsck -f /dev/DEV1 to make sure it copied correctly
   
6. You may need to re-install the bootloader (grub) onto your device. On a Linux system that is already using grub (like Ubuntu or debian) type the following:
   
   sudo mount /dev/DEV1 /mnt
sudo grub-install --recheck --root-directory=/mnt /dev/DEV
sudo umount /mnt

These modifications will be rectified in the final release and should only be applied to the EeeOS beta 2 image

The Beta 2 image does not include default group memberships for the useradd command and as such, any newly created users are left out of some vital groups. Modify your /etc/group file and include each new user into the following additional groups

cdrom
floppy
audio
video
plugdev
games
users
messagebus
haldaemon
powerdev

If you want to enable gksu and sudo support for users you can create a group called wheel and add users to this group. Before the changes take effect you must add the wheel group to the list of allowed groups to run with heightened privlidges. To do this add the following line to /etc/sudoers:

%wheel ALL=(ALL) ALL

To allow XFCE/Thunar to manage devices make the following changes:

• Add the haldaemon user to the group messagebus
• Add the messagebus user to the group haldaemon
• Add the haldaemon user to the group plugdev
  
  

Please add additiona groups if required.

See the above section titled Add Users to some Important Groups

You can add the following to /etc/network/interfaces

auto eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp

That will make your eth0 connect automatically on boot. I think it should also allow you to startup and have the ethernet cable disconnected, but once added the dhcp daemon should wake up and get an IP for it anyway…. not sure on this though.

From the terminal, you can run “dhclient” (as root) and it will connect to wired and/or wireless networks.

WPA-Supplicant was not included in the first two beta's. If you require WPA authentication on your wireless network you must install the GNU\Debian package wpasupplicant. Once this is installed wifi-radar will be able to use WPA authentication.

Compiz won't render window content properly unless the following is added to your xorg.conf file. In the Section “Device” add:

    Option  "XAANoOffscreenPixmaps"	"true"

Note: you can't run compiz with the XFCE4 compositor enabled.

EeeOS Homepage: http://eeeos.interactivelaboratories.com
Also check the forums for more updates. rio b and you sfr